Railroad-spike.



G. F. GARRITY;

RAILROAD SPIKE.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 11, 1907.

Patented Mar. 16, 1909.

UNITED STATES PATENT oEFioE.

GEORGE FRANCIS GARTH Th, OF SQRANTON, PENNSYLVANIA.

Specification of Letters Patent.

RAILROAD-SPIKE.

Patented March 16, 1909.

Application filed. May 11, 1907. Serial No. 373,068.

To all whom it may concern: I

Be it known that I, GEORGEF. GARRITY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Scranton, in the county of Lac'kawanna and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful ltajilroad Spike, of which the following is a specification; i

Theinvention relates to improvements inrailroad s ikes.

The ob 1ect of the presentinvention'is to improve the construction of railroad spikes,

to increase the holding power of the same, and at the same time enable them to resist more effectively the'tendency of. the rails to s read. I A furt erobject of the invention is to provide a railroad spike of this character, adapt- I parting from the spirit or sacrificing any of the advantages of the invention.

In the drawing :Figure 1 is a side elevation of a railroad spike, constructed in accordance wit this invention. Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the same. Fig. 3 is a sectional erspective view of a portion of the body of the spike.

Like numerals of reference designate corresponding parts in all the figures of the draw- The railroad spike com rises a straight body 1 and a rail-engaging head 2 of the or-- dinary construction. The straight body portion is provided with a tapered lower end 3 to ena lethe spike to be'readily driven into a cross tie, andit has horizontal ribs or teeth 4 at its front face for engaging the wood of a cross tie to prevent the spike from'being loos ened by the rebound of the rails incident to the passage of a train over-the same. The ribs or teethhave inclined faces and horizontal upper edges or shoulders, and they form intervening recesses 5, into which the wood of the cross tie is crowded by the weight of a train, whereby the holding power ofthe. spike is materially increased. The shoulders, formed by the upper, edges of the ribs or teeth, effectually revent the spike from oeing loosened by t e rebound of a rail.

The body of the spike is truncated wedgeshaped in cross section being tapered horizontally and provided with rearwardly converging side faces .6, as clearly illustrated in Fi 3 of the accompanying drawing. The

si e facesconverge from the front face of the spike, which is of'gre ater width than the rear face 7 and by means of the rearward taper of the body of the spike, the wood operates to. crowd the spiketoward the rail, and the s ike is enabled to resist more effectively t e tendency of the rails to spread. The. teeth or ribs extend entirely across the front face of the spike, and the'inclined frblrtiaces of the ribs or teeth do not interfere withthe driving of the spike into a cross tie, or other timber.

7 Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

Arailroad spike made of a sin le ielce with a point and an integral hea of uniform cross-sectional area from the head to the oint and having a relatively broad vertical front face and provided thereat with horizontal ribs or teeth extending entirely across the said front face and having horizontal shoulders at their upper edges and intervening inclined faces, said body being truncated wedge-shaped in cross section below thehead and tapered rearwardly to form angularly related side faces, which converge fromvthefront face of the body portion of the spike to the rear face thereof, the latter being vertical .and inarallelism with the front face and fiat an of afwidth slightly less than the width of the front face, and the said rearwardly converging side faces being adapted to cause the spike to be forced forward by the pressure of the crowded wood .when. the spikeis driven into the cross tie,

whereb the teeth of the spike will be firmly engage with the wood, the fiat rearface of the spike preventing outward movement of the same.

In testimony, that I claim the foregoing as my own, I have hereto affixed my signature m the resence of two witnesses.

GE RG'E FRANCIS GARRITY.

Witnesses JAMEs P. MOHUGH, EDWARD MGDONNELL. 

